Starter's Gun

I had a database training class almost all week with little time to blog, tweet, email, or even train, with the latter getting what spare time I had. On Tuesday, I walked/jogged 4 miles and did 3 on Wednesday. I took Thursday off and then did 3 on Friday. I just did 1.5 before engaging some college football and will do maybe 2 more afterward with my first half-mile jog.

I have been jogging up to 600m at a time with around a 200m walk and then repeating the process. It is a very different thing to wake up in the morning knowing I can do a real running workout later in the day. I keep myself occupied on the treadmill with many little goals, like working up to longer or faster jog portion while shortening the walking segments. We have a small a/v system so I can watch TV or a movie or listen to music to help ease the visual boredom. Having the smaller goals helps keep the brain engaged so the treadmill monotony does not kill my will to live.

My residual limb continues to lose volume and I am up two 8 plies of socks to keep a good fit. I am going to email Larry at Floyd Brace and see if I should come in and get another socket. With the liner and socks I cannot bend my knee/leg back very far; this limits my stride length. I stopped riding my bike because this bunching causes irritation at the distal end of my leg, the mechanics of this is like a lever, think teeter-totter.

Once my leg gets down to a point where volume changes are not so large, I should be able to get better liners and have to use less socks to get a good fit that will not affect my stride. It is my understanding the elevated vacuum systems manage these volume fluctuations much better while providing a better fit; I intend to try one or two of these as I decide what works best for me.

If there are no further problems, I will do my one mile run next Saturday morning. I want to do it on the track, a new one in town that I didn't get a chance to run on before my surgeries. I could do it sooner, but being a milestone I want to make it a special thing with my wife Jennifer. She is training for a half marathon and I miss our Saturday runs, be they races or a tour of the neighborhood.

Heck I'm getting pre-race jitters thinking about it, just like standing on the starting line of a track meet. It will be the start of my second running life and I await the starter's gun:

Runners take your mark.